Folks,
I'm 45 and I was reffered by my dentist to an oral surgen to remove lower wisdom teeth. He said they had decayed and needed to go.

Has anyone had this done and if so how long was the recovery time?

I was planning to go somewhere the first of April and wanted to schedule accordingly.

Thanks..

I have to go Friday. I can let ya know how it went on Tuesday??

I just had all 4 removed on friday (march 17th) and as of today (sunday) I feel TERRIBLE. I am swollen, bruised, and I will not be going back to work on Monday. I would plan this for a time when I had NOTHING going on. Allow up to a full week to recover. - Catherine

Hi, I had all four of my wisdoms out little over a week ago (3/10).
First of all, I highly suggest getting IV sedation versus nitrous oxide, etc. This being because quite simply, you will not remember anything really. :) I know it is costly, my whole procedure was $2100, $1350 of which came out of MY pocket. For anyone else reading this...also they say the earlier you "nip this in the butt", the better off. I am 20 years old and even I wish I had done this 2-3 years ago. Anyways.
I suppose I am quite lucky because honestly, and this is no white lie, I have experienced very little pain. The doc. prescribed IBprofin (do not take asprin containing medications this will interfere with the clot). Instructed me to take it about an hour after I left the office, because once your anesthesia wears off you will know it. However, for the most part I took one pain med. a day, whereas the instructions say every 4-6 hours.
I felt like crap during that weekend, but most of it was HUNGER and dizziness etc. It really takes a while for the sedation stuff to get outta your system. I went back to work Tuesday.
Based on my experience, and you will not necessarily experience the same things, but in case you do, FYI.
I was/still am very hungry. Seriously you don't even wanna think about a chicken wing or anything hard like that. I literally ate yogurt/jello/pudding for about a week. SICK of that! You may lose some weight, I did. Do not smoke, suck through a straw, spit, etc. This draws blood forward, you want the clot to form and stay put. Also, don't brush your teeth that day or for 24-48 hours. I know it sounds gross, but I waited 48 hours and am glad that I did. You don't want any accidental bumps. Salt-water rinse after about 24 hrs, it'll make you feel "cleaner". (sorry for this novel).
My stitches were "disolvable" ones, but this past Friday I went for my post-op and I still had a couple I could feel, very easy for the Doc to pluck those for ya, don't worry about that.
I just started eating solids this weekend, but it is still kind of difficult, and take it very slow and very small bites. My doc said about 3-4 weeks for the gums to fully heal, however the BONE underneath anywhere from 6-14 weeks. So to be FULLY healed will really take a few months. Do what you are comfortable with, if you are a fast eater like myself, this will be a rude awakening.
Lastly, another thing to keep in mind is after your stiches are removed/dissolved, you will want to stretch your jaw because you haven't opened it that wide thus far. Take that slow, it will hurt a little almost like you've been chewing gum for 24 hrs. My jaw is still sore, just work it out a little each day and it will get back to normal.
I hope this helps you, and anyone else. Appologize for the lengthiness but it really is a major deal for all of us. Best of luck to you.

I think the amount of pain and recovery time depends on the individual. I had all my upper teeth and most of my lower teeth (including all four wisdom teeth) extracted and took painkillers for about 10 hours afterward. I never had any pain after that (and am not sure if I would have had much pain during the first 10 horus either). I had the extractions done on Wednesday and went back to work on Friday morning wearing temporary dentures.

Glad I found this post. I posted last week a few days before getting both lower teeth out. I did everything by the book, everything he told me and ended up with dry socket on the right side. That woke me up at 4:30am with pain you wouldn't believe. I went in on Wed and he put a packing strip into the hole thought I was gonna die.
I am sorry to even tell you all of this, but the lowers were so much worse than last yr when I got one of the uppers out.
I'm glad I read the other post that explains how long it can take to recover. I am a week and a few days post op and my jaw still aches. I went and got some "orajel" swabs. They definitely help with spot pain. I agree with the ib, I bought the Advil Liquigels.
They "sold" me a white cotten tube (for lack of a better word) that has cold/warm packs in it to velcro around my head. Sounds humerous and it was but I didn't bruise at all. I may have been swollen the first day or so but I didn't leave my house for 4 days so no one saw me looking that way.
I had an awesome doctor so I wouldn't hesitate to refer him or to go back to him but I am not in any kind of hurry, lol.